Neck Pain, Whiplash, and Headaches Diagnosis & Treatment

Both acute neck pain (from an accident or injury) or chronic neck pain (pain that persists after the original cause has healed) can result in discomfort, headaches, tingling in your arms or hands, and loss of range of motion in your neck. These symptoms can happen after an accident such as a sports injury or auto accident. Whiplash injuries from auto accidents are a leading cause of neck pain, and the symptoms of these injuries can be delayed for days or sometimes weeks after the original accident.

But not all neck pain comes from an injury. In general, any position that increases the relative weight on your cervical spine can lead to neck problems, such as working on a computer, reading a book, or being hunched over your phone.

• Muscle strains.Many of our modern behaviors, such as long hours in the car, or too many hours hunched over your computer or smartphone, can result in muscle strains. Even minor things, such as reading in bed or gritting your teeth, can strain neck muscles.
• Worn joints.Our neck joints can wear down with age and use. Osteoarthritis causes the cartilage in your vertebrae to deteriorate, resulting in bone spurs that affect joint motion and cause pain.
• Nerve compression.Herniated disks or bone spurs in the vertebrae of your neck can cause pressure on the nerves branching out from the spinal cord.
• Rear-end auto collisions often result in whiplash injury, which occurs when the head is jerked backward and then forward, straining the soft tissues of the neck.
• Certain diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, meningitis or cancer, can cause neck pain.

Whether your neck pain is acute or chronic, resulting from an injury or from a different cause, neck pain, debilitating headaches, and whiplash should be examined by a spine physician with access to a full suite of diagnostic tools and treatment options for effective and long-term relief.